A common domestic appliance found in many homes is the dishwasher. The dishwasher generally includes a compartment within which dishes and/or crockery are placed for treatment and/or washing. The compartment usually contains at least one rack designed to hold the items placed within the compartment for cleaning. The compartment is generally enclosed and sealed by a hinged door or sliding drawer, either of which may have a handle. Within the compartment, there are usually a number of sprayers, e.g., nozzles, arranged to provide spraying water to assist with the treatment and/or washing of dishes and/or crockery. A basin designed to collect water sprayed from the nozzles is located within the base of the compartment. The basin contains a drain and a hose which allows water to drain and be removed from the compartment at the conclusion of a wash cycle. The dishwasher also includes a detergent and/or prewash dispenser arranged and configured to release detergent and/or prewash into the compartment during the wash and/or treatment cycle. The dispenser often includes a cover to hold the detergent and/or prewash in place and may be arranged to selectively release the detergent into the compartment.
The rack may include wheels and/or rollers to allow the rack to roll out from within the compartment and grant access to the whole of the rack to a user wanting to place dishes and/or crockery into or remove dishes and/or crockery from within the dishwasher. The racks may be configured to have a particular permanent design to accommodate a variety of shapes which may be placed into the rack as dishware and/or crockery. The design may feature tines or prongs which project from the rack as part of a particular permanent design such that dishware and/or crockery can be organized when placed into the rack.
Designing a rack with a particular permanent shape and design has limitations and shortcomings. In particular, dishware, crockery, glassware, and utensils are increasingly and continuously being designed in a variety of shapes and sizes. Therefore, a rack with a singular configuration with a permanent shape, including having projecting tines, may not be able to accommodate a sufficient amount of differing items in a particular wash cycle due to differences in size and shape. This limitation requires a user to run multiple dishwasher cycles, whereby each cycle of the dishwasher is run at less than its most efficient state due to inefficient or incomplete loading of the dishwasher via its rack or racks. Additionally, some shapes or arrangements of racks within a dishwasher may prevent some items, due to their shape, size, or height, from being able to be loaded and/or washed within the dishwasher at all.
A need has developed to address one or more shortcomings of the prior art.